Failures of the Legal Imagination

Alan Watson

In this masterful choreography of legal philosophy, legal history, and comparative law, Alan Watson draws from ancient Roman, English, and French law to assess how lawmakers fail to envision ways to provide society with laws geared toward precise political or social goals.

Alan Watson is Earnest P. Rogers Professor of Law, University of Georgia. He is the author of many books of legal history, including Rome of the Twelve Tables; Roman Slave Law; and Sources of Law, Legal Change, and Ambiguity, published by the University of Pennsylvania Press.